Environment and Society : A Critical Introduction

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Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction is an overview of the diverse conceptual tools and traditions for thinking about, explaining and addressing the environmental challenges we face in the contemporary world. Provides an introduction to the environmental challenges we face in the contemporary world through foundational theoretical ideas illustrated with concrete, everyday examples Utilizes compelling, conversational language to expound on theory, history, and scientific topics, making the text accessible to a diverse readership Draws upon contemporary theoretical understandings in nature/society theory while demonstrating through practice and deployment Includes discussion of key historical events, topical issues, and policies, as well as scientific concepts

Paul Robbins is a Professor in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona, Tucson. His current research centers on the relationships between individuals, environmental actors, and the institutions that connect them. Robbins is also the author of Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (2004) and Lawn People: How Grasses Weeds and Chemicals Make us Who We Are (2007).

John Hintz is Assistant Professor of Geography and Geosciences at the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on land use conflicts, environmental policy, and the US environmental movement. He has most recently published in the journals Capitalism Nature Socialism and Ethics, Place and Environment.

Sarah A. Moore is Assistant Professor in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her research focuses on urban development politics, urban environmental issues, and environmental justice in the United States and Latin America. Her publications include articles in the Professional Geographer and Society and Natural Resources.

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Text Boxes

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The View from Clifton Bridge

What Is This Book?

Approaches and Perspectives

Population and Scarcity

A Crowded Desert City

The Problem of "Geometric" Growth

Population, Development, and Environment Impact

The Other Side of the Coin: Population and Innovation

Limits to Population: An Effect Rather than a Cause?

Thinking with Population

Markets and Commodities

The Bet

Managing Environmental Bads: The Coase Theorem

Market Failure

Market-Based Solutions to Environmental Problems

Beyond Market Failure: Gaps between Nature and Economy

Thinking with Markets

Institutions and "The Commons"

Controlling Carbon?

The Prisoner's Dilemma

The Tragedy of the Commons

The Evidence and Logic of Collective Action

Crafting Sustainable Environmental Institutions

Are All Commoners Equal? Does Scale Matter?

Thinking with Institutions

Environmental Ethics

The Price of Cheap Meat

Improving Nature: From Biblical Tradition to John Locke

Gifford Pinchot vs. John Muir in Yosemite, California

Aldo Leopold and "The Land Ethic"

Liberation for Animals!

Holism, Scientism, and Pragmatism? Oh My!

Thinking with Ethics

Risks and Hazards

The Great Flood of 1993

Environments as Hazard

The Problem of Risk Perception

Risk as Culture

Beyond Risk: The Political Economy of Hazards

Thinking with Hazards and Risk

Political Economy

The Strange Logic of "Under-pollution"

Labor, Accumulation, and Crisis

Production of Nature

Global Capitalism and the Ecology of Uneven Development

Social Reproduction and Nature

Environments and Economism

Thinking with Political Economy

Social Construction of Nature

Welcome to the Jungle

So You Say It's "Natural"?

Environmental Discourse

The Limits of Constructivism: Science, Relativism, and the Very Material World

Thinking with Construction

Objects of Concern

Carbon Dioxide

Stuck in Pittsburgh Traffic

A Short History of CO2

Institutions: Climate Free-Riders and Carbon Cooperation

Markets: Trading More Gases, Buying Less Carbon

Political Economy: Who Killed the Atmosphere?

The Carbon Puzzle

Trees

Chained to a Tree in Berkeley California

A Short History of Trees

Population and Markets: The Forest Transition Theory

Political Economy: Accumulation and Deforestation

Ethics, Justice, and Equity: Should Trees Have Standing?

The Tree Puzzle

Wolves

January 12, 1995, Yellowstone National Park

A Short History of Wolves

Ethics: Rewilding the Northeast

Institutions: Stakeholder Management

Social Construction: Of Wolves and Men Masculinity

The Wolf Puzzle

Tuna

Blood Tuna

A Short History of Tuna

Markets and Commodities: Eco-Labels to the Rescue?

Political Economy: Re-regulating Fishery Economies

Ethics and Ecocentrism: The Social Construction of Charismatic Species